ARTIST RUSSELL THRILLED TO BE A PART OF THROWBACK SHOWDOWN
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Growing up, Greg Russell had dreams of being an engineer who designed roller-coasters.
Russell didn’t take that career path, but he still wound up on a journey he has a hard time believing.
Russell, 46, has become a renowned atist, and his latest work is on display at CompetitionPlus.com as part of the
Throwback Showdown presented by Boninfante Friction, Inc., a fan-driven competition featuring twenty 1970s Funny Car schemes applied to modern day bodies.
“I realized I was good at drawing when I got a check, but it’s not easy,” Russell said with a laugh. “
Russell of Greg Russell Designs crafted a rendering of each of the 20 cars in the Throwback Showdown.
“I enjoy drawing and I have a passion for it,” said Russell, who is originally from Atlanta, but now resides in Lawrenceville, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta. “It’s still an out of body experience to see my stuff on TV, in a magazine or any other media (outlet). I’m living a dream (getting to be part of the Throwback Showdown). It’s wonderful. To grow up and actually see those cars when I was a kid and to be a part of something this huge is awesome.”
Russell said the 20 renderings for the Throwback Showdown took anywhere from 24 to 48 hours each to complete.
“I hand draw everything first, a sketch,” Russell said. “Then, I look at a reference of what I’ve got as far as hand-drawn stuff and a photo and then I put the two together.”
Russell has been around motorsports his entire life as his father, mother and grandmother all competed in bracket racing.
“I was influenced by birth,” Russell said about his ties to motorsports.
Russell’s only art classes came when he was in middle school. Then he started doing renderings at Lanier National Speedway.
“I started doing NHRA cars in 1998, and one of the first designs I did was of an exhibition truck,” Russell said. “Then from there I took off with Chris Vandergriff of Vandergriff Motorsports with the Spec Truck side of things. Chris had a Spec Truck company and they did like Super Trucks for Lanier (National Speedway) and for tracks in the Southeast. He gave me a shot, and I did several renderings for trucks out of his shop.”
From that point on, Russell started posting his renderings on his website and things took off for him.
“I met two individuals, Dave Conforti and Raymond Golson out of World Wide Bearings (in Cedar Grove, N.J.), and they really got my career off to a big boost,” Russell said. “I owe them until the day I die. They called me up for a rendering after they saw some of my work on a website. At that time I was producing a lot of my renderings on social media. They called me up for a rendering job and we hit it off. It was like I found my long lost family. We did several sponsorship packs from there and we developed a great friendship and now they are like my brothers. I’m still doing stuff for them today and my market has grown into motorcycles, NHRA motorcycles and Outlaw motorcycles. I do love (doing renderings) of all NHRA’s classes.”
